State wide figures
- The number of offences recorded by police in the year to 31 December 2016 was 552,005. This is up 10.2% from 500,971 offences recorded in the same period last year.
- Family incidents increased in the year to 31 December 2016, up 5.7% from 74,376 to 78,628.
- There were 179,267 offender incidents recorded, up 11.9% from 160,181 in the year to December 2015.
- Victim reports increased in the year to 31 December 2016 by 13.6% to 338,922 victim reports.
Offence trends
Between the year ending December 2015 and 2016, the major offence categories that showed the highest significant upward trends were:
- Justice procedures offences (up 51.6% from 9,158 to 13,883)
- Transport regulation offences (up 43.3% from 487 to 698)
- Robbery (up 24.4% from 2,572 to 3,200)
- Dangerous and negligent acts endangering people (up 22.3% from 4,795 to 5,863)
- Theft offences (up 15.9% from 165,466 to 191,717)
- Assault and related offences (up 11.8% from 38,881 to 43,478)
- Breaches of orders (up 10.6% from 52,928 to 58,563)
- Burglary/break and enter (up 10.1% from 49,722 to 54,745)
- Drug use and possession offences (up 6.9% from 23,010 to 24,594)
Between the year ending December 2015 and 2016 two offence subdivisions showed a significant downwards trend:
- Disorderly and offensive conduct (down 9.4% from 18,054 to 16,365)
- Cultivate and manufacture drugs (down 9.0% from 1,772 to 1,612)
Local Government Area level figures
The five Local Government Areas with the highest offence rates were:
- Melbourne (27,299.4 offences per 100,000 estimated resident population, up 5.0%)
- Latrobe (19,725.9 offences per 100,000 estimated resident population, up 8.9%)
- Yarra (15,232.3 offences per 100,000 estimated resident population, up 3.5%)
- Horsham (14,336.7 offences per 100,000 estimated resident population, down 7.2%)
- Greater Dandenong (13,332.4 offences per 100,000 estimated resident population, up 3.4%)
For explanatory information and definitions for the latest release, see the explanatory notes and glossary